The Italian Job

Keira Knightley in Atonement, Alex Bailey

As the 64th Venice Film Festival approaches, the program reveals that a huge contingent of British films are about to blast the Lido – well, hopefully. Judging from the names of the directors, this year Marco Muller (the President of the Festival, now in his final year of term) has been particularly indulgent in selecting sure-fire hits that are supposed to attract both “hardcore” academic film critics as well as the entertainment-prone journalists.

The film that will open the Festival is no less than Atonement, Joe Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s masterwork.

An epic romance that cannot fail to impress, the film stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy and will probably cement their place in the best actors of their age category.
Wright has already proved to have an elegant hand and attention for subtleties in Pride And Prejudice and will hopefully give his new movie the powerful treatment it deserves.

For something totally different  we find veteran Ken Loach and his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty with their umpteenth study on human greed and social injustice: with the clearly sarcastic title It’s A Free World…, the film tells the story of a woman who ventures into the underworld of recruitment agencies.

Loach is well used to prizes gracing his mantelpiece,  and as the Jury is helmed by Chinese cult director Zhang Yimou, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him adding a Lion ( the Festival’s coveted award ) to his collection.

But a shadowy figure prowls on the Lido: it is Peter Greenaway, whose last works of art (not just “films”) disappeared without a trace.
Now he presents a novelised biopic of painter Rembrandt with the appealing title Nightwatching. His old fans will be delighted.

And a younger member of the Intelligent British Film-makers  posse is back: our representative of the Bard on Earth: Kenneth Branagh.
Taken from a piece by Harold Pinter, his Sleuth boasts Michael Caine and Jude Law as protagonists and therefore cannot go totally wrong; fingers crossed.

Moving to different sections of the Festival we find many other British talents: in the Out Of Competition selection there is young Hackney-born Asif Kapadia with Far North, a complex triangle between two women and a soldier.

But the Orizzonti (the “alternative” fringe of the Festival) is much richer: Penny Woolcock, who gained plenty of kudos with her Mischief Night last year at the Rotterdam Film Festival, is in Venice with Exodus, a modern re-telling of the Biblical tale of Moses and Zipporah.
Quite a bizarre choice for a director who is renowned for her keen eye on the present, but all the more interesting for it.

Searchers 2.0 by Liverpudlian director-writer-actor Alex Cox has already won the award for the quirkiest title; any other information about the film is undisclosed at the moment, so we need to wait for the first press screening to solve its enigma.
The final stalwart of the Union Jack at the Lido is County Durham-born director Sir Ridley Scott, but he is not off to Italy with a new work.

The Festival has offered him the chance for a much coveted screening of Blade Runner: Director’s Cut just as, two years ago Donnie Darko: Director’s Cut was shown.

And now that the countdown to the Festival has started, let’s  hope that these filmmakers show the Best of British.

Vera will be reporting back with reviews, gossip and interviews from the Venice Film Festival from August 29th.

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